As the title states, Dignitas Apollo recently sat down and discussed a few different things with David Kim, lead balance designer at Blizzard. Here is the video:
To summarize what the interview states:
- Blizzard is receiving overall positive feedback and are being asked to leave the game as it is by many pros (mainly Koreans) - Blizzard wants to take things slow in terms of rolling out balance patches - They felt as if the Medivac Speed Boost is the biggest complained about issue in Starcraft - They are not going to roll our nerfs but they think it could get boring to see every TvZ as a mass drop fest if it is all that ever happens - Mech is fine, it just isn't being experimented with and that is less of a balance problem than it is a player problem - Swarm Host is biggest disappointment in terms of its lack of use. Decreasing burrow time or increasing the movement speed of Swarm Hosts could be potential solution
I hope I didn't leave anything out!
My apologies to those who are saying that Apollo is no longer a part of Team Dignitas. I wasn't sure and I double checked http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Apollo. The second line states "playing for and coaching for Team Dignitas."
I also apologize some other points that were made were: - Protoss recieved three units and the other races recieved two because the Tempest is very niche oriented and the mothership core is limited as well -They are taking into account the players and tournament desire to have a better map pool (specifically Apollo mentioning everyone's weariness towards Daybreak - Blizzard has sent three new maps to tournaments to recieve their opinions on the maps and make things new and fresh
I hope they do something about skytoss, and nerf widow mines. Medivacs are annoying but adding an energy cost/some kind of negative to the boost will easily solve this.
I dont think swarm hosts need damage. This isnt BW. And people need to stop wanting it to be. Reducing their size a tiny bit, burrow time, and movement speed would all make swarm hosts better. as well as reducing the cost of the upgrade for locusts.
Glad that Blizzard is taking their time before they take balance into their own hands. Please do not listen to the instant cries of imbalance most people have.
Next interview: please ask if Blizzard has put any more thought into changing the standard for resources in their maps, as well as if they are even discussing economy changes to SC2.
My thoughts: - widow mines are fine - boost needs some kind of cost/risk associated with it - void rays are still the same boring unit. Pros are still not target firing
Swarm Hosts need to be buffed ALOT. They are really bad vs anyone with any level of multi-tasking and micro. Anytime you see a Zerg start building Hosts you know he's gonna lose. Probably why you hardly see them at high-level play.
Bio and Stalkers just go around them and there is no way the Zerg player can respond in a timely fashion with Hosts. 3+ collosi or 5+ tanks shut down any number of locusts. They are just bad, bad, bad.
I would say make them less supply, move faster, unburrow faster, and locusts have a longer life span. I don't think locusts need to do more damage, that is one thing they are good at, if they can ever manage to hit the enemy army.
When korean pros say that the game is balanced it doesnt mean the same is true for "Joe Woodleague". Professionals can handle stuff more easily than casuals ... and the game should be FUN for everyone.
On April 11 2013 11:45 ElMeanYo wrote: Swarm Hosts need to be buffed ALOT. They are really bad vs anyone with any level of multi-tasking and micro. Anytime you see a Zerg start building Hosts you know he's gonna lose. Probably why you hardly see them at high-level play.
Bio and Stalkers just go around them and there is no way the Zerg player can respond in a timely fashion with Hosts. 3+ collosi or 5+ tanks shut down any number of locusts. They are just bad, bad, bad.
I would say make them less supply, move faster, unburrow faster, and locusts have a longer life span. I don't think locusts need to do more damage, that is one thing they are good at, if they can ever manage to hit the enemy army.
lol I disagree with you so hard on swarmhosts. Their good if zergs know how to use them and right now almost NOBODY does.
On April 11 2013 10:49 Aiios wrote: - They are not going to roll our nerfs but they think it could get boring to see every TvZ as a mass drop fest if it is all that ever happens
That's... weird. I mean, there are lots of drops, but no more than there were in the MMA TvZ era of WOL, and that was far from boring. IMO it's the opposite of boring now, in fact HotS TvZ is exciting in part thanks to speedivacs.
- Mech is fine, it just isn't being experimented with and that is less of a balance problem than it is a player problem
-_- Even against Protoss? He must mean, "Compositions made of a majority of units that come from the factory and starport can sometimes win against Protoss", which is sort of true. However, "Compositions based on the siege tank are viable against Protoss" is definitely still false.
Yea Siege tanks against protoss are still a losing money pit. In regards to TVZ, I think it's the most exciting match up with the tallest skill ceiling. Match ups more similar to TVP are not what we need at all. To the cat who said people need to stop wanting this to be brood war, that confuses me because that would be the best thing to happen to starcraft 2.
On April 11 2013 11:45 ElMeanYo wrote: Swarm Hosts need to be buffed ALOT. They are really bad vs anyone with any level of multi-tasking and micro. Anytime you see a Zerg start building Hosts you know he's gonna lose. Probably why you hardly see them at high-level play.
Bio and Stalkers just go around them and there is no way the Zerg player can respond in a timely fashion with Hosts. 3+ collosi or 5+ tanks shut down any number of locusts. They are just bad, bad, bad.
I would say make them less supply, move faster, unburrow faster, and locusts have a longer life span. I don't think locusts need to do more damage, that is one thing they are good at, if they can ever manage to hit the enemy army.
lol I disagree with you so hard on swarmhosts. Their good if zergs know how to use them and right now almost NOBODY does.
if no-one knows how to use swarmhosts correctly, how do you know if they are good when used by someone correctly?
On April 11 2013 11:45 ElMeanYo wrote: Swarm Hosts need to be buffed ALOT. They are really bad vs anyone with any level of multi-tasking and micro. Anytime you see a Zerg start building Hosts you know he's gonna lose. Probably why you hardly see them at high-level play.
Bio and Stalkers just go around them and there is no way the Zerg player can respond in a timely fashion with Hosts. 3+ collosi or 5+ tanks shut down any number of locusts. They are just bad, bad, bad.
I would say make them less supply, move faster, unburrow faster, and locusts have a longer life span. I don't think locusts need to do more damage, that is one thing they are good at, if they can ever manage to hit the enemy army.
lol I disagree with you so hard on swarmhosts. Their good if zergs know how to use them and right now almost NOBODY does.
if no-one knows how to use swarmhosts correctly, how do you know if they are good when used by someone correctly?
He is implying that he uses them correctly. Blade5555 is quite good but even if he uses swarm hosts "correctly" the opponent might night know how do deal with them correctly. If swarmhosts were used a lot more then maybe the metagame will evolve to a point where we can truly see if the unit is good or not. All we need is a GSL finalist to use swarmhosts a lot... something like a SwarmhostKingPrime.
On April 11 2013 11:22 KanoCoke wrote: Increase the supply requirements for swarm host by one, increase the number of locusts it spawns by one maybe?
3 supply is already a lot doesn't need to be 4 supply.
I wouldn't mind a buff to my beloved swarmhosts
Wouldn't it be worth 4 supply to have 2 locusts spawn per cycle for a single swarm host be good though? 12 supply for 6 locusts compared to 12 supply for 4 locusts per cycle isn't much at first glance, but the more swarm hosts you get, the better it is (24 supply for 12 locusts sounds better than 24 supply for 8 locusts, and so on). It's like spawning zerglings with ranged attack for free. Totally zerg-like in my opinion compared to what it was previously.
On April 11 2013 12:46 grunge wrote: Yea Siege tanks against protoss are still a losing money pit. In regards to TVZ, I think it's the most exciting match up with the tallest skill ceiling. Match ups more similar to TVP are not what we need at all. To the cat who said people need to stop wanting this to be brood war, that confuses me because that would be the best thing to happen to starcraft 2.
Yeah, I agree. Some things in BW were just great and should return.
One great thing from BW that should definitely return:
The way most air units (and some ground units too) can attack and move at the same time (and dance all over the place).
In terms of "dancing" air units can turn basically instantly (if you manually command them to move a certain direction) but if you a-move somewhere (and if they're not already facing the target they want to attack), then they'll decelerate and lose speed
This wasn't a "mindless rapid clicking mechanic" either, it requires attention and thought. It's simple to learn and fun to use mechanic (that is also hard to master).
They should increase the range of the locusts back to 3 and probably increase SHs move speed a little bit.
It's very disappointing that he didnt say anything about zergs air issues: bad anti-air, and broodlords not being viable again. You just can't win ZvP or ZvT air battle.
Good interview. Nice to hear they are paying close attention.
I wouldn't say Medivacs are overpowered, but making Afterburners cost Energy would make things a lot more interesting. Feedback would be to stop Medivacs from boosting, instead of always one-shotting them because they have so much energy. It may also make Caduceus Reactor get used once in a while.
Widow Mines should just scale better with Mech upgrades. (Less splash until +1 at least) Then you could even combine Mech/Air Attack upgrades just like Mech/Air Armor.
Swarm Hosts getting faster movement speed isn't a bad idea, but should be part of Locust Life upgrade. Burrow and Overlord Speed would be used more before Lair tech if they were 75 gas instead of 100. Blinding Cloud, however, is just a bad spell. Maybe have it affect Air but cut all unit Range in half?
Void Rays could require 5 seconds to get Armored bonus damage after activating Prismatic Alignment. They would have a weakness to sneak attacks, but still be strong if activated 5 seconds before battle.
I really wish there was an easier way to tell who casts Time Warps when watching a PvP. The MsC used to spin fast during Envision in beta.. be nice if they'd bring it back for Time Warp.
Adding GSL/Proleague maps to the ladder pool is the way to go... especially the new GSL maps are great.
Honestly i think they just need to get rid of enduring locusts upgrade, and allow them to come naturally with it.
Swarm Hosts are already an expensive, unit in cost and supply, not to mention you need a few of them before they are useful. Getting rid of that upgrade would just make them more attractive, and easier to transition in too. While not really affecting their power in mass.
EPT
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Apollo. The second line states "playing for and coaching for Team Dignitas."
